Contact: [email protected] Url: www.tibettravel.org Tel： 0086-28-85552138 Tourist notice of Tibet Tour Dear Customer Thank you for your trust and booking the tour with Tibet Vista, Now you officially became our clients and we would like to inform you some important issues that are needed to be taken great care of before your tour starts. The following items are essential but not inclusive, if you have more questions concerning your tour arrangement, local situation, and other issues about food, weather, accommodation, safety etc, please contact Tibet vista travel consultant for details. Content 1. Know your tour arrangement procedure 2. Local Payment 3. Travel Documents 4. Enter or Leave Tibet 5. Receiving Tourists in Tibet 6. Complaints and Advice 7. Travel Tips and preparation 8. Be Understanding and downplay your expectation towards Local Service Contact: [email protected] Url: www.tibettravel.org Tel： 0086-28-85552138 1. Know your tour arrangement procedure Tour Arrangement by Tibet Vista (Tibet Vista will arrange these items step by step after tourists booked a travel itinerary.) 1.1 Air Ticket If you book air tickets through Tibet Vista, we will approximately book and issue them one month before the departure day, or even earlier if booking is busy. 1.2 Train Ticket Train ticket will normally be booked around 60 days before the departure day. But from May to early October, the high tourist season, sometimes, the booking might not be done until few days even one day before departure, due to some reasons on Railway Company side that is beyond our control. If it happens, please be considerable and keep in touch with us to confirm the booking. If tour booking is within 60 days before tour departure, the train tickets will also not be issued until few days even one day before departure. 1.3 Tibet Visa Your Tibet Visa application will be handled approximately 20 Days before your tour starts, which is mandated by relevant officials. The issue of Tibet visa (or Tibet Travel Permit) is available between 5 and 7 days (15 days for Kailash Tour). The possibility of visa denial is fairly low, and according to our experience less than 0.1 percent of tourists might be denied. If you are unfortunately rejected, Tibet Vista will inform you in the first place. (Notice: Tibet visa refusal is given by Tibet Travel Bureau orally without explaining any reasons and providing any written documents.) 1.4 Local Service Arrangement Tour guide, vehicle, and accommodation will be arranged 2 to 4 weeks in advance. If tourists have any particular preference like a specific tour guide, hotel, etc, Tibet vista will have everything settled much earlier. 1.5 How to check follow-up tour arrangement: Currently, Tibet Vista offers no online service as to monitoring your tour arrangement. Tourists, however, may contact your travel consultant for detailed information and consultancy. If it is possible, Tibet Vista does expect tourists can get in touch with your travel consultant 2 or 4 weeks prior to your departure for detailed tour arrangement. While your Tibet Vista operation department arranges your tour, some minor changes might be made and Tibet Vista will keep you informed in the first place and discuss them with you for a better solution. 2. Local Payment As is often the case, a part of amount of payment written in the agreement is expected to be paid in travel destination upon your arrival. And this final payment shall be made on the first or second day shortly after you arrive in your destination and preferably paid in cash. ( RMB/USD/EURO/AUD). Besides, Tibet Vista also accepts payment both via credit card and payment online like Paypal. Yet, tourists have to pay 4 percent extra commission fee if the payment is made through credit card and Paypal. (Notice: local payment doesn’t include Bank Telegraphic Transfer, Western Union, Traveller’s Check.) 3. Travel Documents Being able to travel legally in Tibet, tourists need to have two separate documents: China visa and Tibet visa (also Contact: [email protected] Url: www.tibettravel.org Tel： 0086-28-85552138 known as Tibet Travel Permit). Foreign tourists need to apply for the China visa yourself while Tibet Vista is responsible for Tibet visa. Before Tibet Vista begins to handle your Tibet visa, tourists have to successfully get your China visa. If tourist are required to show Tibet Travel Permit by Chinese embassy when they are applying for Chinese Visa, they are advised not to refer to visiting Tibet. For details, see http://www.tibettravel.org/tibet-travel-permit/tips.html If you run into any trouble, please contact travel consultant to get prompt support. 3.1 Enter Tibet from mainland China Documents needed： Foreign Tourists： ×Scanned copies (electronic version) of passport (the photo page), the passport should be valid for at least 6 months ×Scanned copies of China visa, and it should be valid while your stay in Tibet, China × If you are a foreigner who stays in China for work, study or business, you have to provide Tibet Vista with a certificate to prove your legality and this certificate should have the stamp of relevant company, school, etc. The certificate form can be download from here. http://www.tibettravel.org/Download/tibet_permit_working certificate.pdf Hongkong Citizen： × Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Travel Pass, we also called this pass “returning home pass.” Taiwan Citizen： ×Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan residents and scanned copies of stamped page of this permit ×Taiwan Passport (scanned copies, electronic version) The electronic documents above should be sent to your travel consultant through E-mail one month in advance and the scanned copies must be intact and legible with color. 3.2 Enter Tibet from Kathmandu Entering Tibet from Kathmandu, tourists need scanned copies of valid passport to apply for Tibet visa, and you don’t have to have China visa in advance. ×××Mind you: It is a must to have Tibet visa first when foreign tourists enter Tibet from Kathmandu, and then go to China embassy in Nepal to apply for China visa. Tibet Vista is responsible for handling the application of your Tibet visa while the local travel partner of Tibet Vista in Nepal will help tourists get China visa. Therefore, tourists need to pay the extra 20 USD per person for the service fee to local partner of Tibet Vista in Kathmandu. ××× Notice: Tourists shall inform your travel consultant the earliest date that you will arrive in Kathmandu, which will facilitate Tibet Vista to apply for your China visa to a great deal. The China visa application service is available on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in China embassy in Nepal. If it is on both festival of China and Nepal, the service will be suspended temporally. It takes one to three days to issue China visa. To See Official Price at website of China embassy in Nepal. http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/ce/cenp/chn/lsfw/qz/t1162805.htm In Nepal, Tibet Vista needs to tender China visa application one day before workdays of China embassy, except on weekends and holidays. So, please contact local business partners of Tibet Vista in Nepal as soon as possible short after your arrival and discuss with them when to tender China visa application so as to make sure how much you need to pay for it and how long the application process may take. Contact: [email protected] Url: www.tibettravel.org Tel： 0086-28-85552138 Designated Local business partners of Tibet Vista in Nepal ： Friendship Nepal Tours and Travels (P) Ltd. G P O box: 8974 CPC 449, Thamel Kathmandu, Nepal. Tel: 977 1 4233084, 4233085 Fax: 977 4212203 Cell: 977 98510 67637 - Mr. Ram Silwal Email: [email protected] Mind you: Our quotation doesn’t include the service fee charged by local Nepal travel agency and China visa application fee charged by China embassy. Please pay cash for both of them to our local business partners. 3.3 Delivery of Tibet Visa For those travelers who visit Tibet by plane, we will deliver the original Visa to you by express. Normally, Tibet Vista will not deliver Tibet Visa abroad. So please inform your travel consultant your address in detail in China (e.g. Hotel address, address of your Chinese friends or relatives, etc.) If you don’t have an address for Tibet visa delivery or need to have your Tibet visa while you transit at the airport, Tibet Vista can send a staff to deliver your visa to you and you need to pay for the delivery fee. For details, please consult your trip consultant. As Tibet visa is a must for your entry into Tibet, China, Tibet Vista will contact relevant personnel of hotel and consignees to check if your visa is received and meanwhile we do hope you can cooperate with us to make sure the timely delivery. If you still haven’t received Tibet visa 2 days before your departure to Tibet, please contact us immediately. If you travel to Tibet by train, it’s unnecessary to have the original Tibet Visa and all you need is two copies of the original Tibet visa (Tibet Travel Permit). After your trip consultant gets the Tibet visa, an important e-mail that contains the scanned copies of your Tibet visa will be sent to you in the first place and make sure you get it and later mail back to confirm. 3.4 Enter Tibet and check Tibet Visa As long as you enter Tibet from Nepal or inland China, you have to have Tibet visa and China visa.